It's all done and now I'm sitting on a couch in my parent's basement in Abbotsford, BC, and holy hell, do I feel full of melancholy. Here are the final tales of my journey:
I split with Jaime in the hippy utopia that is Pai, in north-western Thailand. I had signed up for a meditation course online, on the advice of a dive instructor from southern Thailand. I hadn't received a reply, but such was my enthusiasm, that I decided to travel the day's journey to phitsanulok just in case.
It seemed the right thing to do at the time--Jaime was going to go into Laos, and I had decided to stop taking my malaria medication several days before. Also, truth be told, I was getting tired of moving, and I think that Jaime and I were starting to get on each others nerves a little bit from spending so much time together.
On the shuttle bus from Pai, I met a fellow who had told me he had saved a bunch of money by getting his wisdom teeth pulled in a hospital in Bangkok. Since my Korean dentist recommended I get mine pulled, I wrote down the name of the hospital just in case.
So, I got to Phitsanulok, well after the sun had gone down, not knowing a goddamn thing about the place. I got a ride on the back of a scooter downtown and got dropped off at a hotel, which I didn't check into. I walked around for an hour unit I found an internet cafe. Once there I found out that I had not secured a place for the retreat, after-all. Also, had I checked my e-mail before leaving Pai, I would have known that morning. I walked a while longer and got a room in a proper hotel for once. Laying in that bed, I felt the most profound loneliness, which gave way to the intense satisfaction of freedom. The next morning I ate KFC instead of Pad Thai.
I decided that I did not really want to travel to Wat Pah Nanachat in Ubon, after all, and headed for Bangkok, in order to have my backmost teeth pulled out of my head. So, I had to return to the den of vipers, that utopia for frat boys, Khosan Road. I went to the very impressive and very modern hospital, Bumrungrad, to make an appointment. Much later in the day I learned that I did not need to have any teeth pulled, after-all.
Upon that discovery, I thought I would go relax on Koh Chang (Elephant Island) until the end of my vacation, or until I got bored, whichever happened first. I met a fellow on the mini-van to Tratt named Ryan, who happened to have the same interest in contemporary philosophy as I. I ended up going to the same area of the island as he, and that evening, I tried Thai beer for the first and only time during my vacation. I played "bingo" with a Cambodian girl, who was almost certainly a prostitute at one of Kai Bai's many "lady bars".
The next week was, for the most part, uneventful, but very nice. I found a modest bungalow on the beach, and made friends with an Austrian named Martin, who shared my interest in eastern mysticism. I spent my time lying on the beach, reading Steppenwolf and riding around the island on a rented scooter. One day, while Martin and I were leaving the resort to find some dinner, I fell in a hole and had to get five stitches in my leg.
Eventually I made my way back to Khosan road, where I met Martin and a Ukranian fellow. I was conned for a significant amount of money by a Muslim fortune teller. I bought a knife and some other trinkets. I spent my last couple of days in Bangkok far away from Khosan road.
I had to stay a day and a night in Shanghai, where I almost got in to a fist fight with one of the many men on the street soliciting hashish, prostitutes and watches. China is very clean, and there are many beggars (at least in the commercial strip where I stayed). I've never seen such a meticulously planned city.
Now I am home, and it's a bit surreal. I am enjoying Vancouver's cool, moody weather, and the company of my friends and family. I will start a TESOL program in a couple of days, and sublet a room in my friends house. If I don't have a reasonably well paying job here within three months, then I will go back to Korea and revive this blog.
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